Paul Craig Roberts and his White Supremacist Appeal

By Emma RosenthalAREN’T THERE BETTER, MORE DESERVING, MORE QUALIFIED WRITERS, WE CAN PROMOTE, TO DECONSTRUCT THE ASSUMPTIONS, ARROGANCE AND HUBRIS OF AMERICAN EMPIRE, ISRAELI SETTLER COLONIALISM AND GENOCIDE?

Roberts is a right wing white supremacist who has written repeatedly anti-disability, anti-jewish, anti-gay, anti-immigrant anti- people of color, rants for years. (and while attempting to be “pro-Islam, pro-Arab”, his assertions are rife with orientalist assumptions of Amerikan/western superiority.) His critique of U.S./Israeli policy is not part of a human rights, social justice, anti-imperialist movement for self-determination or liberation, but rather is simply an extension of his white supremacist fear that white people and Amerika are losing ground. Roberts has written for years for VDARE (a racist publication, named for Virginia Dare, the first “white” baby to be born in the “New World”), but recently he has been published, without criticism or reference to his racist, ableist, sexist anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-Jewish, anti-Arab trajectory by Counterpunch, ifamericansknew, antiwar.com, Democracy Now, Information Clearing House, Alternet and other “progressive” media. In his article “Why Does Israel Want to Initiate War Between theU.S. and Iran?” (1) Roberts repeats what we’ve been hearing for years: that the U.S. government is a puppet regime of Israel. immediately contradicting himself with the refrain we’ve heard for 10 years, that Israel is trying to drag the U.S. into war with IRan, or that Israel will bomb Iran on its own. We’ve heard this from the left, the right, and from two U.S. Vice Presidents. (Cheney and Biden) and yet– no war. (Sanctions, defamations, pressure, but no war!) Does this mean that the tail doesn’t wag the dog, as has been suggested? After all, if Israel has really wanted the U.S. to go to war, or if Israel really wants to bomb Iran, if Israel really did run the show, wouldn’t this have happened years ago? On the other hand, is it possible that Israel is less influential than we’ve been led to believe and that the threat of an Israeli caused war, is part of the illusion the U.S. and Israel have been manufacturing for some time– the idea that Israel is responsible for U.S. foreign policy– taking the focus off of the U.S. and its global empire, while simultaneously making Israel seem much more powerful than it really is. – a mutually beneficial illusion. In his article “The End of Free Speech? Criminalizing Criticism of Israel”, (2) Roberts attacks a hate crimes bill that extends violent hate crimes protection to LGBT people and people with dis-abilities. He asserts that this new bill would make any criticism of Israel and the Holocaust, illegal, contrary to ANY reading of the bill, which says absolutely nothing about Israel and has no impact at all on speech. In his article ” Muslims Are Their Own Worst Enemy” (3) he repeats tired orientalist stereotypes, blames the victims of U.S. (and British and Russian Imperialism) for their own condition “Muslim disunity has made it possible for Israel to dispossess the Palestinians, for the U.S. to invade Iraq, and for the U.S. to rule much of the region…” In his memoriam to Milton Friedman, (4) the architect of some of the most deadly economic policies of the Twentieth Century, he calls Friedman the “great economist of our times.” In his article “That Buchanan Book” (5) he repeats and embellishes Buchanon’s attacks on immigrants, multiculturalism, people of color people with dis-abilities and the left. “Buchanan has strong opinions, but his opinions are based in facts, unlike his equally opinionated opponents, who have bought into the multiculturalist dogma of the evils of western civilization or taken refuge in neoconservative wishful thinking.” He states, “Whites are shrinking into a minority even within their own countries. massive uncontrolled legal and illegal immigration, together with collapsing fertility rates of whites everywhere, foretell a vanishing race.” as if it’s a bad thing. (Seriously though, the disappearance of any culture or group is NEVER a good thing, but the construct of whiteness –including his unstated inference to race mixing as further diluting this vanishing breed– isn’t about the preservation of a culture, but the total assimilation of several distinct and disparate languages, heritages, histories and legacies which are swallowed up into a homogenized (White) identity in the interest of empire and domination–for those who qualify, whiteness is the price of losing who you are.) He goes on to assert that the situation may be worse than Buchanan would have us think: “In the U.S., native-born whites already are second-class citizens in their own country. Unconstitutional group privileges have arisen based on race, gender, and disability. White males no longer have equal rights. “ He concludes this article; “Demonization of whites is the weapon used by multiculturalists to breakup western civilization… Demonization has already demoralized some whites, making them ashamed and fearful of their skin color.”“By the time whites become political minorities, decades of demonization will have prepared the ground for legislation prohibiting their propagation and, perhaps, assigning them to the gulag as a final solution … none of this is ordained. faculties could replace multicultural propagandists with real scholars, and legislation could halt or reduce immigration to assimilable numbers. Is western civilization worth the effort? Does anyone any longer know what western civilization is? “ So how come roberts is getting so much play among progressives, including the progressive press, given his history of bigotry and intolerance, as well as having “served” on Reagan’s cabinet as Treasury Secretary (making his essay “The Rich Have Stolen the Economy”, a bit absurd)? Could it be that his white supremacist positions, including the assertion of a Zionist occupied Amerikan government, run by foreign Israeli interlopers, tricksters, puppeteers, as well as an entire ethnic group of U.S. citizens with suspicious national allegiance, absolve (Christian) white (and otherwise privileged) Amerikans of their (real and mis-afilliated) guilt, allowing them to address injustices without ever having to examine the root causes, raise their class consciousness, or challenge their own nationalism, Amerikan hubris, entitlement and arrogance. When I ask why “we” are promoting Roberts, I am told that he has important points to make, that no one is all good or all bad, that his position in the Reagan Administration lends credibility to those more legitimate assertions “we all agree on”. But even though a broken clock is right twice a day, and Mussolini made the trains run on time, do we really want, in giving credence to his “good points” to legitimize his racist, sexist, ableist bigotry and promote Roberts at the expense of other writers who, though lesser known, might better articulate a vision of anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, infused justice, inclusion, diversity and self-determination?

21 Responses

More on Counterpunch.
Joel Schalit, former managing editor Tikkun, on Doug Henwood’s radio show on WBAI-FM,http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html
reviewing the Counterpunch edited collection from CP, “The Politics of Anti-Semitism.”

http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2004/2004-January/000421.html
* Michael Neumann (a relative of Franz Neumann, by the way) has more
fun with anti-Semitism: “Undoubtedly there is genuine ant-Semitism in
the Arab world: the distribution of the Protocols of the Elders of
Zion, the myths about stealing the blood of gentile babies. This is
utterly inexucsable. So was your failure to answer Aunt Bee’s
letter.” He goes on to dismiss anti-Semitism as more a feeling than a
real threat. “I’m much more scared of really dangerous situations,
like driving.” The book often veers spuriously between this
complacency and a justified dismissal of the abuse of the term
“anti-Semitism” by apologists for Israeli policy without bothering to
take real anti-Semitism very seriously.

* Alexander Cockburn’s piece is full of his typical turns of phrase –
“a torrent of money from out of stat Jewish organizations…American
Jewish money showered upon….outside Jewish money….Zionist
influence on the media….Jewish families are proprietors of some of
the most powerful newspapers in the country….[I]t’s reasonable to
point out that Jewish families control the new York Times and
Washington Post.” Weirdly, AC notes that the “most rabidly”
pro-Israel of all the U.S. newspapers is the Wall Street Journal,
“which is not Jewish owned” – so what’s the relevance of pointing out
the Jewish ownership of the NYT and WP, except to flirt with classic
stereotypes?

* Jeffrey Blankfort has a repulsive piece specifically aimed at
refuting Chomsky’s line that Israel serves U.S. imperial interests,
arguing instead that it’s the Israeli lobby and its money that’s
hijacked U.S. policy.

* A pseudonymous congressional aide, George Sutherland, likens the
U.S. government’s relationship with Israel to Vichy France’s with
Nazi Germany’s, and Congressional “Likudniki” to “Quislings.” In the
piece, “Sutherland” actually refers to the U.S. Senate as “the
world’s greatest deliberative body,” which Cockburn would normally
have sport with, except in this context.

* Kathleen and Bill Christison, two retired CIA agents, describe
Congress as “Israeli occupied territory,” and refer to the “dual
loyalties” of the Bush administration. They argue that the
once-pragmatic Cheney was transformed by all the Israeli agents in
the Bush administration. “[L]oyalty to Israel by government officials
colors and influences US policymaking in ways that are extrmely
dangerous,” they conclude – as if Bush’s neo-cons weren’t driven by
their own understanding of U.S. imperial interests.

I wrote Patrick Cockburn a few years back asking why a guy who is a hero of vdare and front page mag sites was getting columns on CounterPunch. I never got a response. Just because PCR rails against neoliberalism doesn’t make him left or progressive any more than Ron Paul supporters at an anti-war march, or the LaRouche supporters at the March 4 protests.

I subscribe to united front tactics when indicated, but publishing PCR on CounterPunch is nothing of the sort. Emma’s analysis of the man, his politics, and his penchant for the most vile sort of racism are all spot on.

Did you write Patrick or the irascable Alex?
I view Counterpunch as a rag that for the most part is as unreliable as the (Stalinist) publication of the CPUSA, The New Masses was, when they polemicized that Trotsky was a Fascist.

If we would put down the evil amongst ourselves as Jews, there would not be this problem with these sicko writers.
I have found that these people that are Jew haters, are leftists. Not just liberals, b/c Liberals that are old school liberals don’t believe in taking MY $, but just being charitable.

Sometimes I wonder if the troops read these jerks trash to see how white American men support their enemies.

I use to be a great champion for Mexican LEGALS, and got many jobs while in restaurant management for them, but now, the reverse racism and discrimination against American whites is terrible in states like Cali, TX- states that have illegals. (Sorry, I am 100% against illegals, and want them to go home after watching them takeover my town outside of Monterey, CA)
There are close to 23,000,000 illegals in my country, and yes, I AM indigenous, American Iroquois, on my dads side of my family.
See: http://immigrationcounters.com/

But, I believe Karma has came in and kicked up for our support for Israels enemies. Bush and Sharon forced over 10,000 Israeli pioneers that lived in their homes for over 40 years, 2005- Gusf Katif (many of them) and in 10 days, America got Katrina. They had over 10,000, we had over 100,000.

America is forcing the “palestinians” to inhabit Israel, there are about 2 million, we have 22,000,000. “palestin has a place called the Trans Jordan, LEGALLY, but they REFUSE it.http://www.masada2000.org/historical.html
“I will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you”
-God
*His promises are FOREVER.

[…] in a 2007 interview with the white-supremacist website VDare.com (co-edited by none other than Paul Craig Roberts, another strange bedfellow), we face two other great dangers: undocumented workers, the social […]

Our monthly has been publishing PGR’s pieces in translation for years, because we find most of them convincing, well-written and courageous critique of the US Empire, imperialism, and late capitalism in general. Whether Roberts is classified as ‘Left’ or not is of no concern to us if only because in contemporary world there exists no classifier whose judgements on who is ‘left’ and who is not are excepted even remotely as authoritative. The word itself has become useless and even harmful, because it is habitually used as fig leaf by groups and individuals who, from our point of view, have nothing to do with the struggle for the emancipation of Labor one who in their turn would not allow us in their ‘left’ church. To put it differently, words are the stuff people fight for. It is important, for example, to Left Zionists, i.e., left nationalists, to exclude from the word ‘Left’ all those whose views they perceive as in any way dangerous for the existence and well-being of Israel. Of course, Roberts is not a “white supremacist.” Rosenthal has failed to provide a single quote that could be classified as “supremacist,” i.e., arguing for the supremacy of the white race over other races. Clearly, Roberts is not a historical materialist or perhaps he is but in a way that its priests never thought of. Racial differentiation plays important part in material history and there is nothing deplorable in the fact that Roberts might be concerned about the degradation of HIS OWN race under the regime of late capitalism and imperialism which, by the way, includes the importation of Third World labor into the centers of “white” capitalist accumulation and exploitation. Such is the will of the ruling class. And the bulk of the so-called ‘Left’ seems to do exactly what this class wants them to do, supporting the mass importation of migrant labor that allows capitalism to prevent the emergence of strong, even revolutionary labor movement both in the center and the periphery. Just imagine how different our social history would’ve been if Turkish and Mexican workers and peasants could not work for capitalists in Germany and US. Or East Europeans and Asians in Israel.

how can one possibly separate the trajectory of manifest destiny that established the modern u.s. from its current manifestations? and if prc’s fears of the end of the white race isn’t white supremacist, well then, nothing is.

I would think it relevant to note how much influence AIPAC has on US foreign policy and why dual Israel citizens are in the highest echelons of US government and how much US tax money is sent some of these countries annually.

The entire lobbying system favors those with power and money. The Zionist lobby is much more than AIPAC and includes the military industrial complex, the security industrial complex, the prison complex, the construction industry, etc. Israel provides vital information and resources to key sectors of the ruling class. There’s no magical Jewish kabal, except in the imagination of white supremacists who seem to have no problem with capitalism, imperialism, genocide or hegmony; only with Jews and some mystical “jooooo powah!”

The whole “dual citizenship” conspiracy theory is bunk. There are several countries which have dual citizenship. Israel is one. (Mexico is another). How many dual Israeli citizens in the highest echelons of U.S. government? Two? Three? What difference does that make? Is the U.S. track record on both domestic and international policy so wonderful except for the sinister influence of jooo powah?

The problem that I always had with Roberts is the fact that he holds Reagan up to such high esteem when Reagan was just as corrupt as any other president and was responsible for Iran Contra which destroyed several Central American countries. In his latest article he makes the mistake of saying that America stole Mexico from Mexico when in fact we purchased the south western United States from Spain. Mexico was not a country yet! So now he is pandering to the Mexican people in the hopes of what exactly?

Re: William Zabel: Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821. At that time, it included what are now the U.S. states of Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, about half of New Mexico, about a quarter of Colorado, and a small section of Wyoming. Except for Texas, which was separated from Mexico earlier by a revolt of Anglo settlers dominated by slaveholders — slavery had been outlawed in Mexico!, the rest of those future states were seized as a result of the successful U.S. invasion of Mexico in 1846-48. Spain was not involved, at least not in any significant-enough way for most historians to mention.

Paul Craig Roberts has directly contributed to the normalization of Nazi and white supremacist ideology and policy. There is nothing of value he has to say that hasn’t been said by others who need and deserve our promotion. When you defend him and promote him you normalize his white supremacist ideology. His is extreme white supremacist ideology– the fear of decreasing white majority, the threat of “losing” the country to people who are not white. It’s truly outrageous how the left led the way for the normalization of fascism by joining forces with fascist racists like PCR.